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Image by FlamingText.com
Image by FlamingText.com

A LESSON LEARNED
by Don McVicker

On Friday, April 5, Doris and I we were returning from our RV trip in the motor home. As we approached a traffic light on Vasco Road, in the middle of nowhere, the light turned quickly from green to red. I hollered for Doris to hang on, since she was in the bathroom and not strapped in by my side. After I stopped I called back and asked her if she was OK.  No reply. Again, I asked, "Are you OK?" Still no reply. I turned in my seat and discovered her lying along side of me, her head resting on the lower part of the motor box. Her eyes were wide open staring at the ceiling. She was unresponsive. I ran the damned red light and pulled over on the shoulder of the road. After about 4 minutes of hollering her name, she began to respond. I reached for the cell phone to call for an ambulance, but she said "no ambulance".  We had a small argument about that, as she was unaware of where we were or even what day it was. She then said she was going to throw up.  Carefully, I rolled her onto her side, holding her head even with her body as I was afraid she might choke to death. After about a half hour, she wanted to get up into her seat.  I couldn't find any broken bones so I agreed. She made it into the seat, still throwing up, but becoming more coherent. She said "let's go home". So I started to move in that direction, talking to her all the time, trying to keep her awake. I kept in mind where Eden Hospital was in case I needed to detour, but as we got near, she seemed to sense my thoughts and said "no hospital". As soon as we arrived home, Doris went in the bathroom still throwing up. I was calling our Doctor, who said get her to St. Rose emergency right away, and that I did. They checked her all over and did a catscan of her head and an X-ray of her neck. All proved to be negative. They came to the conclusion that she had a mild concussion, and told her to cease any physical activities for a while. I'll tell you, I thought I had lost her... I was never so scared in my life.

From this point on, any time we have to get up from our seats in the Motorhome we will find a place to pull over and stop. After this experience I highly recommend all motor homers do the same. We were lucky.

FROM THE ZIGLERS

Just wanted to let you know what's been happening with Lynn & I lately. Actually we're been quite busy. We sold the house here in Pleasanton (amazingly fast-it went in 3 days) and we'll be moving up to the Redding area around the 24th of May. We found a townhouse for the interim time until our new home is built. We start construction around the middle of May. We are building in an area called "Bella Vista". It's a small town about 10 miles east of Redding, we'll be out in the country again (which Pleasanton was when we moved here about 33 years ago). We have approximately 3 1/2 acres with a pond on the property. We're really looking forward to it!!! Will send our new address when we get settled in. Hope things are good with you two and that Doris has gotten her anemia problem solved. Zig

ENGELAGES CELEBRATE 50 YEARS

Dale and Marge Engelage celebrated 50 years of marriage recently. Marge wrote, Regarding our 50th wedding anniversary on April 20, 2002. We shared our anniversary quietly with our children and their families. But anytime we all get together, its like the "wild bunch". We had a photographer take some family photos, followed by snacks, champagne, small talk and then out to dinner. Which is great, just getting us all to sit down at the same time. A truly good time had by all.

The photo Pam sent out with the announcement was reenacted as I put on my wedding dress and Dale put on his Army jacket for photos. we cut the cake in the same manner, the cake was inscribed with "True Grit".

But into each life some rain must fall. Dan our oldest son from Placerville could not be with us as his legs were crushed when he got out of his truck and it started rolling backwards. The door knocked him over and the truck ran over his legs. He has been in and out of the hospital for a couple of weeks. Finally home now and hopefully on the road to recovery.

We would like to "Thank" all who remembered us with cards and letters, pictures, etc. of our lives together over the years. It has been a pleasure to know you all, and I have many fond memories of happy times together. Friends and family make getting older a lot more easier. We miss you and look forward to seeing all of you at Firefolks events. The saga continues. To Mac, thanks for all the e-mails. Janet always asks where is wato, when there are no jokes. The e-mails are great. Thanks, Best wishes to all. Marge & Dale.

FROM MIKE BRADLEY

April 7, 2002

Hello Mac and Doris,

You mentioned earlier Mac that an update on my resignation with the City might be appropriate. I don't know how interesting it is but here is the story.

In September of 2000 the City Manager asked me to take a one-year assignment as the Director of Organizational Development. I accepted. My role was to serve as an internal consultant to the CM, all department heads and senior staff. I was to also manage a contract we had with an external consulting team from Arizona State University. Our focus was on organizational improvement and developing the leadership capabilities of all managers within the City's organization.

While serving in that capacity, the CM received approval to appoint a second Deputy City Manager. I was pretty shocked to see the job description written off my resume. I did not apply for the position, as I was anxious to return to my position as the Fire Chief at the end of one year. I was then told that I would not be returning to Fire and that I would serve as the OD Director for as long as I was needed. In the meantime, I was given several other projects, including project management of a 125 million dollar Capital Improvement Program, Facilities Planning, and the Customer Service Program.

In the meantime, the external consultants quickly found out that the CM really didn't want to improve the organization at all. He was only interested in not having the City Council fire him. Employees were lodging harassment complaints against him and I was the new buffer between him and a bunch of pissed off people. In the interest of not appearing to support him and his actions, I resigned on the spot one Friday.

My resignation and the City Manager's actions are now the focus of a new Mayor/Council race. One mayoral candidate is running on a platform that I become the City Manager; the other that the CM is fired and I return as the Fire Chief.

In the meantime, Margie and I bought a little horse ranch outside of Flagstaff. This relocation will prevent me from returning to the City in any capacity. I have just accepted the position of Deputy Fire Chief with the Highlands Fire Department. The HFD is a consolidation of three rural FD's just south of Flagstaff. We have three stations and cover a 30 square mile area.

Margie and I are in hog heaven. Our new place has a fantastic view of the San Francisco Peaks. I have been doing a little cattle punching for a small outfit here in Northern Arizona. When I am not working or wrangling' I am hunting, hiking, or biking with the boys (Grant is almost 20 and Drew is 16). We are also the proud grandparents of a one-year-old named Wyatt.

We do have a guest house here on the ranch so stop by and visit. Say hello to everybody!

FROM THE TRAV'LIN SMITHS

HI Mac & Doris

Great job on the web page!!!!! We are in Oregon, Harrisburg to be exact. Once again they are repairing our coach, nothing major, just the annual tune up. Although we have always complained about our door not having a deadbolt on it. They fina.lly corrected this problem by installing a new door frame and door. We are very happy about that. Our aqua hot needed servicing, so we had that done. I had ordered the parts from aqua hot in Colorado and was going to do it myself, but the convenience of having them do it was more compelling. When they did it, they ran into problems and a 2 hour job turned into 2 days. We had a paint scratch on the back of the motorhome from when our towbar broke, and the car kissed the back of the motorhome. Plan on going to cummins tomorrow to have our rear end, differential, changed. We have heard a whiny noise and it was starting to get louder, so they will replace it tomorrow. We make it a point of keeping our house in good working order, otherwise things seem to pile up all at once. Our plans are to stay in the northwest most of the summer and then to Kansas for the big fmca rally. After that we will head to arizona for the winter, where we are hosting 2 dinners, november and february, for the monaco coach owners. Right now looking forward to getting all of our service done.

Oh, we also bought property in christmas valley, or. This will be our new residence in oregon, even though we have not seen it yet. We will keep you informed of our moves, G&R

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